Magdalena Spínola
| Magdalena Spínola | |
|---|---|
Magdalena Spinola with her husband Efraín Aguilar Fuentes in 1930
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| Born |
Magdalena Spínola Strecker 26 December 1896 Jutiapa, Guatemala |
| Died | 7 January 1991 (aged 94) Guatemala City, Guatemala |
| Nationality | Guatemalan |
| Occupation | writer, educator |
| Years active | 1938–1977 |
| Notable work | Gabriela Mistral: huéspeda de honor de su patria |
Magdalena Spínola (1896–1991) was a Guatemalan teacher, poet and journalist. Orphaned at a young age, she found encouragement from her childhood neighbor Miguel Ángel Asturias for her literary dreams. After graduating from the country's Teacher's College, she taught school at a private academy and began to publish poems.
Though her husband was part of dictator Jorge Ubico Castañeda's cabinet, they became enemies and Efraín Aguilar Fuentes, her husband, was arrested and shot. She was briefly arrested as well and ostracized by many. She was an ardent feminist and became outspoken about political issues after the fall of Ubico's government.
She was the biographer of Gabriela Mistral and one of the first female erotic poets of Central America.
Magdalena Spínola Stecker was born on 26 December 1896 in Guatemala to Rafael Spínola Orellana and Florencia Strecker Frías Her mother died when she was four years old and a year later her father died. She and her sister, Stella were then split up as well, with Stella going to live with her maternal grandparents and Magdalena sent to live with her paternal grandparents. Spínola's neighbor was Miguel Ángel Asturias, who became her childhood friend and with whom she discussed an awakening love of literature. Asturias would later dedicate his first book to her.
Spínola began her schooling at the Dolores y Jesús Muños Kindergarten and then attended the Colegio "Central de Señoritas" under the tutelage of Concepción Saravia de Zirión. She was surprised to discover that her textbook prologue had been written by her father. After a time, she changed schools and began attending Colegio de Señoritas San Rosa. Completing her secondary education, Spínola enrolled in teacher's college at the Instituto Normal Central para Señoritas Belén graduating with her teaching credentials. She got a job at a private school Colegio "Josefina González" for the 1914–1915 term.
In 1915, Spínola wrote her first story, entitled Nubia and sent it to Revista Guatemala Informativa, where it was reviewed and accepted by Carlos Wyld Ospina, Virgilio Rodríguez Beteta and Máximo Soto Hall. Buoyed, by her success, she submitted pieces to La República, Revista La Esfera and the prestigious newspaper Quetzaltenango, but soon writing took a back seat as she and Efraín Aguilar Fuentes married and began their family. She quickly had five children, but lost a pair of twins and a baby, leaving her with her daughter, Lilian Eugenia, the oldest, and a son, Rafael, named after her father.
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